In a wireless telecommunications network, wireless transmissions are carried via an RF medium between users and a central wireless transceiver, or base station processor. A subscriber access unit connected to a user device such as a user PC is employed to transmit wireless messages to and from the base station processor. In a wireless network, wireless transmission resources are typically allocated among many subscriber access units to serve many users. Therefore, many subscriber access units are transmitting to and receiving from a common base station processor via the RF medium.
Multiple, simultaneous RF transmissions to the base station from different subscriber access units can have a tendency to interfere with each other. Techniques including Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and power control are often employed to mitigate such interference. However, factors such as distance and the mobility of the user can limit the degree to which the interference may be mitigated. Further, certain device capabilities, for example the type of antenna employed, can affect interference. Directional antennas, which can focus a transmitted signal among several degrees of freedom to correspond to the base station processor, are less prone to interference than omnidirectional antennas, which transmit with equal strength in all directions.
Therefore, subscriber access units employing an omnidirectional antenna or which are highly mobile will tend to experience more interference than stationary users or subscriber access units employing a directional antenna. However, since interference results in retransmission of dropped messages, the result may be a disproportionate amount of wireless resources being allocated to a subscriber access unit which is prone to interference, sometimes called a lossy link. The allocation of wireless transmission resources to retransmit wireless messages over a lossy link can have a detrimental effect on wireless resources available for other users. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a system and method for a subscriber access unit to register device capabilities with a base station processor to determine the degree to which a particular subscriber access unit may be prone to interference, and adjust transmission constraints for that subscriber access unit accordingly.